Systems and methods for monitoring traffic sign violation

ABSTRACT

A system and method for determining a traffic sign violation are provided. The method may include obtaining a traffic rule corresponding to the traffic sign. The method may further include acquiring, by at least one camera, video data associated with a scene around a traffic sign. The video data may include a series of frames. The method may further include identifying the vehicle in the series of frames and determining whether the vehicle violates the traffic rule based on the series of frames. In response to the determination that the vehicle violates the traffic rule, the method may further include obtaining information of the vehicle and transmitting the information of the vehicle to a server.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2019/084432, filed on Apr. 26, 2019, which claims priority of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/664,073, filed on Apr. 27, 2018, theentire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to traffic monitoring around atraffic sign, and more particularly, relates to systems and methods formonitoring a traffic sign violation around a traffic sign.

BACKGROUND

A traffic sign is a sign standing at the side of or above roads to giveinstructions or provide information to road users, such as drivers,cyclists, pedestrians, etc. Usually, every traffic sign is associatedwith a specific traffic rule that a vehicle, a motorcycle, or apedestrian should comply with. For example, a stop sign is associatedwith a rule that requires any vehicle or motorcycle to be fully stoppedfor a certain time period (e.g., 3 s) before proceeding. However, thenumber of traffic signs in an area is too huge comparing with limitedpolice resources (e.g., traffic polices) or traffic monitoringfacilities, which makes it impossible to monitor violations aroundcertain traffic signs such as stop signs in the community streets, neara school or a hospital, etc. Therefore, it is desirable to providesystems and methods for automatically monitoring traffic around atraffic sign and detecting traffic sign violations.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to monitoring a traffic sign violationaround a traffic sign. According to an aspect of the present disclosure,a system for determining a traffic sign violation is provided. Thesystem may include at least one camera configured to acquire video dataassociated with a scene around a traffic sign. The video data mayinclude a series of frames. The system may further include at least onestorage medium storing a set of instructions and at least one processorconfigured to communicate with the at least one storage medium. Whenexecuting the set of instructions, the at least one processor may bedirected to cause the system to obtain a traffic rule corresponding tothe traffic sign and identify a vehicle in the series of frames. The atleast one processor may be further directed to cause the system todetermine whether the vehicle violates the traffic rule based on theseries of frames. In response to the determination that the vehicleviolates the traffic rule, the at least one processor may be furtherdirected to cause the system to obtain information of the vehicle andtransmit the information of the vehicle to a server.

In some embodiments, to identify the vehicle in the series of frames,the at least one processor may be further directed to cause the systemto remove uninterested regions in the series of frames.

In some embodiments, to identify the vehicle in the series of frames,the at least one processor may be further directed to cause the systemto obtain an object identification model and execute the objectidentification model to identify the vehicle in each of the series offrames. The at least one processor may be further directed to cause thesystem to correlate the identified vehicle in each of the series offrames.

In some embodiments, the object identification model may be a you onlylook once model, a Haar-boosting model, a Faster R-CNN model, or a MaskR-CNN model.

In some embodiments, the traffic sign may be a stop sign associated ruleincluding a stop time threshold. To determine whether the vehicleviolates the traffic rule, the at least one processor may be furtherdirected to cause the system to compare, based on the series of frames,locations of the vehicle at the different time points. The at least oneprocessor may be further directed to cause the system to determine astop time of the vehicle based on the comparison between the locationsof the vehicle at different time points and determine whether the stoptime of the vehicle is less than the stop time threshold. In response tothe determination that the stop time of the vehicle is less than thestop time threshold, the at least one processor may be further directedto cause the system to determine that the vehicle violates the stop signassociated rule.

In some embodiments, the stop time of the vehicle may be a time periodwhen the velocity of the vehicle is zero.

In some embodiments, to determine the stop time of the vehicle based onthe comparison between the locations of the vehicle at different timepoints, the at least one processor may be further directed to cause thesystem to determine a first time point when the locations of the vehiclestart to be unchanged and determine a second time point when thelocations of the vehicle start to change. The at least one processor maybe further directed to cause the system to determine a differencebetween the first time point and the second time point as the stop timeof the vehicle.

In some embodiments, to obtain the information of the vehicle, the atleast one processor may be further directed to cause the system toidentify a plate number of the vehicle.

In some embodiments, to identify the plate number of the vehicle, the atleast one processor is further directed to cause the system to locate aplate region in at least one of the series of frames and identify theplate number in the plate region.

In some embodiments, in response to the determination that the vehicleviolates the traffic rule, the at least one processor may be furtherdirected to cause the system to: transmit a traffic violationnotification to a user terminal that is associated with the vehicleviolating the traffic rule.

In some embodiments, the information of the vehicle may include at leastone of a plate number of the vehicle, a location where the vehicleviolates the traffic rule, at least one of the series of frames or atime when the vehicle violates the traffic rule.

In some embodiments, the camera may be mounted on the traffic sign.

In some embodiments, the camera may be mounted on a vehicle near thetraffic sign.

In some embodiments, the camera may be included in a mobile terminal.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method fordetermining a traffic sign violation is provided. The method may includeobtaining a traffic rule corresponding to the traffic sign. The methodmay further include acquiring, by at least one camera, video dataassociated with a scene around a traffic sign. The video data mayinclude a series of frames. The method may further include identifyingthe vehicle in the series of frames and determining whether the vehicleviolates the traffic rule based on the series of frames. In response tothe determination that the vehicle violates the traffic rule, the methodmay further include obtaining information of the vehicle andtransmitting the information of the vehicle to a server.

According to yet a further aspect of the present disclosure, anon-transitory computer readable medium is provided. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium may include executable instructions that, whenexecuted by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor toeffectuate a method for determining a traffic sign violation. The methodmay include obtaining a traffic rule corresponding to the traffic sign.The method may further include acquiring, by at least one camera, videodata associated with a scene around a traffic sign. The video data mayinclude a series of frames. The method may further include identifying avehicle in the series of frames and determining whether the vehicleviolates the traffic rule based on the series of frames. In response tothe determination that the vehicle violates the traffic rule, the methodmay further include obtaining information of the vehicle andtransmitting the information of the vehicle to a server.

Additional features will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the artupon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or maybe learned by production or operation of the examples. The features ofthe present disclosure may be realized and attained by practice or useof various aspects of the methodologies, instrumentalities, andcombinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is further described in terms of exemplaryembodiments. These exemplary embodiments are described in detail withreference to the drawings. These embodiments are non-limiting exemplaryembodiments, in which like reference numerals represent similarstructures throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary monitoringsystem according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of an exemplary computing device on which aprocessing engine may be implemented according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of an exemplary mobile device on which one or moreterminals may be implemented according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an exemplary processingengine according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for monitoringtraffic sign violation according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for identifyinga vehicle in a series of frames according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for monitoringstop sign violation according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for monitoring stop sign violationaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 9A-9C are schematic diagrams illustrating exemplary framesassociated with a scene around a traffic sign according to someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of location changes of a vehiclecorresponding to different time points according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure; and

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of exemplary traffic sign violationrecords according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is presented to enable any person skilled inthe art to make and use the present disclosure and is provided in thecontext of a particular application and its requirements. Variousmodifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein maybe applied to other embodiments and applications without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the presentdisclosure is not limited to the embodiments shown but is to be accordedthe widest scope consistent with the claims.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularexample embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As usedherein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” may be intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprise,”“comprises,” and/or “comprising,” “include,” “includes,” and/or“including,” when used in this specification, specify the presence ofstated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/orcomponents, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or moreother features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components,and/or groups thereof.

It will be understood that the term “system,” “engine,” “unit,”“module,” and/or “block” used herein are one method to distinguishdifferent components, elements, parts, section or assembly of differentlevel in ascending order. However, the terms may be displaced by otherexpression if they achieve the same purpose.

Generally, the word “module,” “unit,” or “block,” as used herein, refersto logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection ofsoftware instructions. A module, a unit, or a block described herein maybe implemented as software and/or hardware and may be stored in any typeof non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. Insome embodiments, a software module/unit/block may be compiled andlinked into an executable program. It will be appreciated that softwaremodules can be callable from other modules/units/blocks or fromthemselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events orinterrupts. Software modules/units/blocks configured for execution oncomputing devices (e.g., processor 210 as illustrated in FIG. 2) may beprovided on a computer-readable medium, such as a compact disc, adigital video disc, a flash drive, a magnetic disc, or any othertangible medium, or as a digital download (and can be originally storedin a compressed or installable format that needs installation,decompression, or decryption prior to execution). Such software code maybe stored, partially or fully, on a storage device of the executingcomputing device, for execution by the computing device. Softwareinstructions may be embedded in a firmware, such as an EPROM. It will befurther appreciated that hardware modules/units/blocks may be includedin connected logic components, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or canbe included of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays orprocessors. The modules/units/blocks or computing device functionalitydescribed herein may be implemented as software modules/units/blocks butmay be represented in hardware or firmware. In general, themodules/units/blocks described herein refer to logicalmodules/units/blocks that may be combined with othermodules/units/blocks or divided into sub-modules/sub-units/sub-blocksdespite their physical organization or storage. The description may beapplicable to a system, an engine, or a portion thereof.

It will be understood that when a unit, engine, module or block isreferred to as being “on,” “connected to,” or “coupled to,” anotherunit, engine, module, or block, it may be directly on, connected orcoupled to, or communicate with the other unit, engine, module, orblock, or an intervening unit, engine, module, or block may be present,unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the term“and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items.

These and other features, and characteristics of the present disclosure,as well as the methods of operation and functions of the relatedelements of structure and the combination of parts and economies ofmanufacture, may become more apparent upon consideration of thefollowing description with reference to the accompanying drawings, allof which form a part of this disclosure. It is to be expresslyunderstood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose ofillustration and description only and are not intended to limit thescope of the present disclosure. It is understood that the drawings arenot to scale.

The flowcharts used in the present disclosure illustrate operations thatsystems implement according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. It is to be expressly understood, the operations of theflowchart may be implemented not in order. Conversely, the operationsmay be implemented in inverted order, or simultaneously. Moreover, oneor more other operations may be added to the flowcharts. One or moreoperations may be removed from the flowcharts.

The vehicle may include a horse, a carriage, a rickshaw (e.g., awheelbarrow, a bike, a tricycle), an electromobile (e.g., an electricbike, an electric tricycle), a car (e.g., a taxi, a bus, a private car),a train, a subway, a vessel, an aircraft (e.g., an airplane, ahelicopter, a space shuttle, a rocket, a hot-air balloon), or the like,or any combination thereof.

A traffic sign used in the present disclosure may be a sign associatedwith a specific traffic rule. The traffic sign may stand above or at theside of a road. The traffic sign may include a stop sign, a yield sign,a no parking sign, a parking time restriction sign, a speed limit sign,a do not enter sign, a left turn only sign, a no left turn sign, a noright turn sign, a no U turn sign, or the like, or any combinationthereof. For example, a stop sign in the present disclosure may refer toa red octagonal sign with a “STOP” written on it in white. The stop signnotifies the drivers to make sure no cars are coming and stop beforeproceeding. A no parking sign in the present disclosure may refer to awhite rectangular sign with a “NO PARKING” written on it in red. The noparking sign notifies the drivers not to park near the no parking sign.A speed limit sign may be a white rectangular sign with a specificmaximum speed limit and/or a specific minimum speed limit written inblack. The speed limit sign notifies the drivers not to drive fasterthan the maximum speed limit and/or slower than the minimum speed limit.It should be noted that the traffic signs described herein are merelyillustrations and shall not limit the scope of the present disclosure.For example, the stop sign (the no parking sign and/or the speed limitsign) may also refer to other signs of same or different sizes or shapeswith same or similar functions. In some embodiments, the traffic signsdescribed in the present disclosure may exist in a form of electronicscreens. The contents displayed on the electronic screens (e.g.,letters, numbers, graphs) may be fixed or adjustable. In someembodiments, the number shown on the electronic screen of a traffic signmay be changed. Merely by way of example, the maximum speed limit shownon a speed limit sign may be 60 miles per hour during the day, and maybe changed to 50 miles per hour during the night. In some embodiments,the type of the traffic sign may also be changed. For example, a speedlimit sign may be changed into a no parking sign by changing theletters, numbers, and/or shapes shown on the electronic screen.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for monitoringtraffic sign violations. For example, a traffic rule corresponding to atraffic sign may be obtained. For instance, the traffic sign may includea stop sign, a parking restriction sign, a speed limit sign, etc. Videodata including a series of frames associated with a scene around thetraffic sign may be obtained by a camera. A vehicle in the series offrames may be identified based on, for example, an object identificationmodel. It may be determined whether the vehicle violates the trafficrule based on the series of frames. In response to the determinationthat the vehicle violates the traffic rule, information of the vehiclemay be obtained. Exemplary information of the vehicle may include aplate number of the vehicle, a location where the vehicle violates thetraffic rule, at least one of the series of frames or a time when thevehicle violates the traffic rule, or the like, or any combinationthereof. The information of the vehicle may be transmitted to a server.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary monitoring system 100according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the monitoring system 100 may be configured to monitor thetraffic around a traffic sign. The traffic sign may be configured arounda school, in a residential area, in a park, etc. The monitoring system100 may detect a vehicle violating a traffic rule associated with thetraffic sign and record information related to the vehicle. Themonitoring system 100 may include a server 110, a network 120, a userterminal 130, a storage device 140 and a camera 150. The server 110 mayinclude a processing engine 112. In some embodiments, the server 110,the user terminal 130, the storage device 140 and the camera 150 may beconnected to and/or communicate with each other via a wirelessconnection (e.g., the network 120), a wired connection, or a combinationthereof.

In some embodiments, the server 110 may be a single server or a servergroup. The server group may be centralized, or distributed (e.g., server110 may be a distributed system). In some embodiments, the server 110may be local or remote. For example, the server 110 may accessinformation and/or data stored in the user terminal 130, and/or thestorage device 140 via the network 120. As another example, the server110 may be directly connected to the user terminal 130, and/or thestorage device 140 to access stored information and/or data. In someembodiments, the server 110 may be implemented on a cloud platform.Merely by way of example, the cloud platform may include a privatecloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, a distributedcloud, an inter-cloud, a multi-cloud, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the server 110 may be implemented on acomputing device 200 having one or more components illustrated in FIG. 2in the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the server 110 may include a processing engine 112.The processing engine 112 may process information and/or data related tothe traffic around a traffic sign. For example, the processing engine112 may identify a vehicle in video data acquired by the camera 150 anddetermine whether the vehicle violates a traffic rule associated withthe traffic sign. In some embodiments, the processing engine 112 mayinclude one or more processing engines (e.g., single-core processingengine(s) or multi-core processor(s)). Merely by way of example, theprocessing engine 112 may include one or more hardware processors, suchas a central processing unit (CPU), an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), an application-specific instruction-set processor(ASIP), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a physics processing unit(PPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a field-programmable gate array(FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a controller, amicrocontroller unit, a reduced instruction-set computer (RISC), amicroprocessor, or the like, or any combination thereof.

The network 120 may facilitate the exchange of information and/or data.In some embodiments, one or more components in the monitoring system 100(e.g., the server 110, the user terminal 130, the storage device 140,and the camera 150) may send information and/or data to othercomponent(s) in the monitoring system 100 via the network 120. Forexample, the processing engine 112 may send information of a vehiclethat violates a traffic rule associated with a traffic sign to the userterminal 130 via the network 120. In some embodiments, the network 120may be any type of wired or wireless network, or a combination thereof.Merely by way of example, the network 120 may include a cable network, awireline network, an optical fiber network, a telecommunicationsnetwork, an intranet, the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a metropolitanarea network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a public telephoneswitched network (PSTN), a Bluetooth™ network, a ZigBee network, a nearfield communication (NFC) network, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the network 120 may include one or morenetwork access points. For example, the network 120 may include wired orwireless network access points such as base stations and/or internetexchange points 120-1, 120-2, . . . , through which one or morecomponents of the monitoring system 100 may be connected to the network120 to exchange data and/or information.

In some embodiments, the user terminal 130 may include a mobile device130-1, a tablet computer 130-2, a laptop computer 130-3, or the like, orany combination thereof. In some embodiments, the mobile device 140-1may include a smart home device, a wearable device, a mobile equipment,a virtual reality device, an augmented reality device, or the like, orany combination thereof. In some embodiments, the smart home device mayinclude a smart lighting device, a control device of an intelligentelectrical apparatus, a smart monitoring device, a smart television, asmart video camera, an interphone, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the wearable device may include abracelet, footgear, glasses, a helmet, a watch, clothing, a backpack, asmart accessory, or the like, or any combination thereof. In someembodiments, the mobile equipment may include a mobile phone, a personaldigital assistance (PDA), a gaming device, a navigation device, a pointof sale (POS) device, a laptop, a desktop, or the like, or anycombination thereof. In some embodiments, the virtual reality deviceand/or the augmented reality device may include a virtual realityhelmet, a virtual reality glass, a virtual reality patch, an augmentedreality helmet, augmented reality glasses, an augmented reality patch,or the like, or any combination thereof. For example, the virtualreality device and/or the augmented reality device may include a GoogleGlass™, a RiftCon™, a Fragments™, a Gear VR™, etc. In some embodiments,a user terminal 130 used by a driver responsible for the violation of atraffic rule associated with a traffic sign may receive a notificationsent from the processing engine 112. In some embodiments, a trafficmanagement officer (e.g., a traffic police officer, a trafficcontroller) may use the user terminal 130 to access violation recordsstored in the storage device 140.

In some embodiments, the user terminal 130 may be a mobile terminalconfigured to include a camera. The user terminal 130 may send and/orreceive information related to traffic sign violation monitoring to theprocessing engine 112 or a processor installed in the user terminal 130via a user interface. For example, the user terminal 130 may send videodata captured by the camera installed in the user terminal 130 to theprocessing engine 112 or the processor installed in the user terminal120 via the user interface. The user interface may be in the form of anapplication for traffic sign violation monitoring implemented on theuser terminal 130. The user interface implemented on the user terminal130 may facilitate communication between a user and the processingengine 112. For example, the user may input and/or choose a traffic signor a traffic rule via the user interface. The processing engine 112 mayreceive the inputted traffic sign or traffic rule via the userinterface. As another example, a user may input a request for trafficsign violation monitoring via the user interface implemented on the userterminal 130. In some embodiments, in response to the request fortraffic sign violation monitoring, the user terminal 130 may directlydetermine whether the vehicle violates the traffic sign via a processorof the user terminal 130 based on the video data captured by the camerainstalled in the user terminal 130 as described elsewhere in the presentdisclosure (e.g., FIGS. 5-7 and the descriptions thereof). In someembodiments, in response to the request for traffic sign violationmonitoring, the user terminal 130 may send the request for traffic signviolation monitoring to the processing engine 112 for determiningwhether a vehicle violates a traffic sign based on video data capturedby the camera 150 or a camera installed in the user terminal 130 asdescribed elsewhere in the present disclosure (e.g., FIGS. 5-7 and thedescriptions thereof). In some embodiments, the user interface mayfacilitate the presentation or display of information and/or data (e.g.,a signal) relating to traffic sign violation monitoring received fromthe processing engine 112. For example, the information and/or data mayinclude a result indicating whether the vehicle violates the trafficsign generated by the processing engine 112, or information of thevehicle if the vehicle violates the traffic sign, etc. In someembodiments, the information and/or data may be further configured tocause the user terminal 130 to display the result to the user.

The storage device 140 may store data and/or instructions. In someembodiments, the storage device 140 may store data obtained from thecamera 150. The storage device 140 may store data and/or instructionsthat the processing engine 112 may execute or use to perform exemplarymethods described in the present disclosure. In some embodiments, thestorage device 140 may include a mass storage, a removable storage, avolatile read-and-write memory, a read-only memory (ROM), or the like,or any combination thereof. Exemplary mass storage may include amagnetic disk, an optical disk, a solid-state drive, etc. Exemplaryremovable storage may include a flash drive, a floppy disk, an opticaldisk, a memory card, a zip disk, a magnetic tape, etc. Exemplaryvolatile read-and-write memory may include a random access memory (RAM).Exemplary RAM may include a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a double date ratesynchronous dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM), a static RAM (SRAM), a thyrisor RAM(T-RAM), and a zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM), etc. Exemplary ROM mayinclude a mask ROM (MROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasableprogrammable ROM (EPROM), an electrically-erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), a compact disk ROM (CD-ROM), and a digital versatile disk ROM,etc. In some embodiments, the storage device 140 may be implemented on acloud platform. Merely by way of example, the cloud platform may includea private cloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, adistributed cloud, an inter-cloud, a multi-cloud, or the like, or anycombination thereof.

In some embodiments, the storage device 140 may be connected to thenetwork 120 to communicate with one or more components in the monitoringsystem 100 (e.g., the server 110, the user terminal 130). One or morecomponents in the monitoring system 100 may access the data orinstructions stored in the storage device 140 via the network 120. Insome embodiments, the storage device 140 may be directly connected to orcommunicate with one or more components in the monitoring system 100(e.g., the server 110, the user terminal 130). In some embodiments, thestorage device 140 may be part of the server 110.

The camera 150 may acquire video data. In some embodiments, the videodata acquired may be associated with a scene around a traffic sign.Merely by way of example, the camera 150 may be a video camera, asecurity camera, a web camera, a smartphone camera, a tablet camera, alaptop camera, etc. The camera 150 may be mounted on the traffic sign,or an object around the traffic sign (e.g., a traffic light, a utilitypole, a vehicle). In some embodiments, the camera 150 may be powersupplied by a power unit (e.g., a power generator, an electrictransmission line, a solar power supply unit). Additionally, the camera150 may use a battery bank for extended power. In some embodiments, thecamera 150 may be configured with/coupled to a network module thatenables the camera 150 to be connected with the processing engine 112,the user terminal 130, and/or the storage device 140 via the network120.

It should be noted that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Manyalternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. The features, structures, methods, and othercharacteristics of the exemplary embodiments described herein may becombined in various ways to obtain additional and/or alternativeexemplary embodiments. For example, the camera 150 may be configuredwith a storage module, a processing module a communication module, etc.However, those variations and modifications do not depart the scope ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of an exemplary computing device 200 on which theprocessing engine 112 may be implemented according to some embodimentsof the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the computingdevice 200 may include a processor 210, a storage 220, an input/output(I/O) 230, and a communication port 240.

The processor 210 (e.g., logic circuits) may execute computerinstructions (e.g., program code) and perform functions of theprocessing engine 112 in accordance with techniques described herein. Insome embodiments, the processor 210 may be configured to process dataand/or information related to one or more components of the monitoringsystem 100. For example, the processor 210 may identify a vehicle in thevideo data acquired by the camera 150. As another example, the processor210 may determine whether the identified vehicle violates a traffic ruleassociated with a traffic sign based on the series of images. Theprocessor 210 may also be configured to identify information of thevehicle that violates the traffic rule associated with the traffic sign.The processor 210 may further send the information of the vehicle thatviolates the traffic rule to the server 110. In some embodiments, theprocessor 210 may send a notification to a user terminal 130 associatedwith the vehicle that violates the traffic rule.

In some embodiments, the processor 210 may include interface circuits210-a and processing circuits 210-b therein. The interface circuits maybe configured to receive electronic signals from a bus (not shown inFIG. 2), wherein the electronic signals encode structured data and/orinstructions for the processing circuits to process. The processingcircuits may conduct logic calculations, and then determine aconclusion, a result, and/or an instruction encoded as electronicsignals. Then the interface circuits may send out the electronic signalsfrom the processing circuits via the bus.

The computer instructions may include, for example, routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, andfunctions, which perform particular functions described herein. Forexample, the processor 210 may process information associated with avehicle obtained from the user terminal 130, the storage device 140,and/or any other component of the monitoring system 100. In someembodiments, the processor 210 may include one or more hardwareprocessors, such as a microcontroller, a microprocessor, a reducedinstruction set computer (RISC), an application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), an application-specific instruction-set processor(ASIP), a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit(GPU), a physics processing unit (PPU), a microcontroller unit, adigital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA),an advanced RISC machine (ARM), a programmable logic device (PLD), anycircuit or processor capable of executing one or more functions, or thelike, or any combinations thereof.

Merely for illustration, only one processor is described in thecomputing device 200. However, it should be noted that the computingdevice 200 in the present disclosure may also include multipleprocessors, thus operations and/or method steps that are performed byone processor as described in the present disclosure may also be jointlyor separately performed by the multiple processors. For example, if inthe present disclosure the processor of the computing device 200executes both step A and step B, it should be understood that step A andstep B may also be performed by two or more different processors jointlyor separately in the computing device 200 (e.g., a first processorexecutes step A and a second processor executes step B, or the first andsecond processors jointly execute steps A and B).

The storage 220 may store data/information obtained from the userterminal 130, the storage device 140, and/or any other component of themonitoring system 100. In some embodiments, the storage 220 may includea mass storage, a removable storage, a volatile read-and-write memory, aread-only memory (ROM), or the like, or any combination thereof. Forexample, the mass storage may include a magnetic disk, an optical disk,a solid-state drives, etc. The removable storage may include a flashdrive, a floppy disk, an optical disk, a memory card, a zip disk, amagnetic tape, etc. The volatile read-and-write memory may include arandom access memory (RAM). The RAM may include a dynamic RAM (DRAM), adouble date rate synchronous dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM), a static RAM(SRAM), a thyristor RAM (T-RAM), and a zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM), etc.The ROM may include a mask ROM (MROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), anerasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmableROM (EEPROM), a compact disk ROM (CD-ROM), and a digital versatile diskROM, etc. In some embodiments, the storage 220 may store one or moreprograms and/or instructions to perform exemplary methods described inthe present disclosure. For example, the storage 220 may store a programfor the processing engine 112 for determining a vehicle value.

The I/O 230 may input and/or output signals, data, information, etc. Insome embodiments, the I/O 230 may enable a user interaction with theprocessing engine 112. In some embodiments, the I/O 230 may include aninput device and an output device. Examples of the input device mayinclude a keyboard, a mouse, a touch screen, a microphone, or the like,or a combination thereof. Examples of the output device may include adisplay device, a loudspeaker, a printer, a projector, or the like, or acombination thereof. Examples of the display device may include a liquidcrystal display (LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED)-based display, aflat panel display, a curved screen, a television device, a cathode raytube (CRT), a touch screen, or the like, or a combination thereof.

The communication port 240 may be connected to a network (e.g., thenetwork 120) to facilitate data communications. The communication port240 may establish connections between the processing engine 112 and theuser terminal 130, the camera 150, or the storage device 140. Theconnection may be a wired connection, a wireless connection, any othercommunication connection that can enable data transmission and/orreception, and/or any combination of these connections. The wiredconnection may include, for example, an electrical cable, an opticalcable, a telephone wire, or the like, or any combination thereof. Thewireless connection may include, for example, a Bluetooth™ link, aWi-Fi™ link, a WiMax™ link, a WLAN link, a ZigBee link, a mobile networklink (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G), or the like, or a combination thereof. In someembodiments, the communication port 240 may be and/or include astandardized communication port, such as RS232, RS485, etc.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of an exemplary mobile device on which the userterminal 130 may be implemented according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the mobile device 300 shown inFIG. 3 may be used by a user. The user may be a driver, a passenger, atraffic police, a traffic controller, or the like. For example, thetraffic police or the traffic controller may review a violation recordvia the mobile device 300. In some embodiments, the traffic policeofficer or the traffic controller may make a penalty decision based onthe violation record and a traffic rule associated with the violationrecord. The penalty decision may be input to the mobile device 300. Asanother example, a driver responsible for the violation of the trafficrule may receive a notification via the mobile device 300 and may paythe fine online via the mobile device 300.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the mobile device 300 may include acommunication platform 310, a display 320, a graphic processing unit(GPU) 330, a central processing unit (CPU) 340, an I/O 350, a memory360, and a storage 390. In some embodiments, any other suitablecomponent, including but not limited to a system bus or a controller(not shown), may also be included in the mobile device 300. In someembodiments, a mobile operating system 370 (e.g., iOS™, Android™,Windows Phone™) and one or more applications 380 may be loaded into thememory 360 from the storage 390 in order to be executed by the CPU 340.The applications 380 may include a browser or any other suitable mobileapps for receiving and rendering information relating to imageprocessing or other information from the processing engine 112. Userinteractions with the information stream may be achieved via the I/O 350and provided to the processing engine 112 and/or other components of themonitoring system 100 via the network 120.

To implement various modules, units, and their functionalities describedin the present disclosure, computer hardware platforms may be used asthe hardware platform(s) for one or more of the elements describedherein. A computer with user interface elements may be used to implementa personal computer (PC) or any other type of work station or terminaldevice. A computer may also act as a server if appropriately programmed.

One of ordinary skill in the art would understand that when an elementof the monitoring system 100 performs, the element may perform throughelectrical signals and/or electromagnetic signals. For example, when theprocessing engine 112 processes a task, such as making a determination,or identifying information, the processing engine 112 may operate logiccircuits in its processor to process such task. When the processingengine 112 sends out data (e.g., a current estimated value of a targetvehicle) to the user terminal 130, a processor of the processing engine112 may generate electrical signals encoding the data. The processor ofthe processing engine 112 may then send the electrical signals to anoutput port. If the user terminal 130 communicates with the processingengine 112 via a wired network, the output port may be physicallyconnected to a cable, which may further transmit the electrical signalsto an input port of the server 110. If the user terminal 130communicates with the processing engine 112 via a wireless network, theoutput port of the processing engine 112 may be one or more antennas,which may convert the electrical signals to electromagnetic signals.Within an electronic device, such as the user terminal 130, and/or theserver 110, when a processor thereof processes an instruction, sends outan instruction, and/or performs an action, the instruction and/or actionis conducted via electrical signals. For example, when the processorretrieves or saves data from a storage medium (e.g., the storage device140), it may send out electrical signals to a read/write device of thestorage medium, which may read or write structured data in the storagemedium. The structured data may be transmitted to the processor in theform of electrical signals via a bus of the electronic device. Here, anelectrical signal may refer to an electrical signal, a series ofelectrical signals, and/or a plurality of discrete electrical signals.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an exemplary processingengine according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the processing engine 112 may include an acquisition module410, an identification module 420, a determination module 430 and acommunication module 440. The processing engine 140 may be implementedon various components (e.g., the processor 210 of the computing device200 as illustrated in FIG. 2). For example, at least a portion of theprocessing engine 140 may be implemented on a computing device asillustrated in FIG. 2 or a mobile device as illustrated in FIG. 3.

The acquisition module 410 may acquire data and/or information relatedto the monitoring system 100. In some embodiments, the acquisitionmodule 410 may acquire the data and/or information related to themonitoring system 100 from one or more components of the monitoringsystem 100, such as the camera 150, the storage device 140. For example,the acquisition module 410 may acquire video data from the camera 150.The video data may include a series of frames. The acquisition module410 may transmit the series of frames to other modules (e.g., theidentification module 420, the determination module 430) for furtherprocessing. As another example, the acquisition module 410 may acquire atraffic rule associated with a traffic sign from the storage device 140.As yet another example, the acquisition module 410 may acquire an objectidentification model from the storage device 140.

The identification module 420 may identify one or more objects from thedata and/or information related to the monitoring system 100. In someembodiments, the identification module 420 may identify a vehicle in theseries of frames acquired from the acquisition module 410. There may beone or more objects in the series of frames. The identification module420 may identify each object in each of the series of frames andcorrelate the identified objects. For instance, one or more vehicles inthe series of frames may be identified using an object identificationmodel. As another example, the static objects such as a building, amailbox, etc. may be identified from the series of frames. In someembodiments, the identification module 420 may identify information of avehicle (e.g., a driver license id, a plate number) that violates atraffic rule based on the series of frames. The traffic rule may beassociated with a traffic sign.

The determination module 430 may determine whether a vehicle violates atraffic rule associated with a traffic sign. The determination module430 may perform an analysis on the motion of the vehicle based on theseries of frames. For instance, the determination module 430 may obtaininformation related to the motion of the vehicle by comparing thelocations of the vehicle in the series of frames. Exemplary informationrelated to the motion of the vehicle may include a stop time of thevehicle, an estimated speed of the vehicle, a moving trace of thevehicle, or the like, or any combination thereof.

The communication module 440 may receive or send information orinstructions to one or more components of the monitoring system 100. Insome embodiments, the communication module 440 may receive aninstruction of a user from the user terminal 130. For example, theinstruction may direct the acquisition module 410 to acquire a trafficrule associated with a traffic sign. As another example, the instructionmay direct the camera 150 to adjust the number of frames captured persecond (also referred to as frame rate). In some embodiments, thecommunication module 440 may send information of a vehicle that violatesthe traffic rule associated with a traffic sign to a server. Exemplaryinformation of the vehicle may include a plate number of the vehicle, alocation where the vehicle violates the traffic rule, at least one ofthe series of frames or a time when the vehicle violates the trafficrule, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, thecommunication module 440 may send a notification to a user terminal 130that is associated with the vehicle that violates the traffic rule.

The modules in the processing engine 112 may be connected to orcommunicate with each other via a wired connection or a wirelessconnection. The wired connection may include a metal cable, an opticalcable, a hybrid cable, or the like, or any combination thereof. Thewireless connection may include a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide AreaNetwork (WAN), a Bluetooth, a ZigBee, a Near Field Communication (NFC),or the like, or any combination thereof. Two or more of the modules maybe combined as a single module, and any one of the modules may bedivided into two or more units. For example, the identification module410 may be integrated in the vehicle identification module 420 as asingle module which may both identify a mobile terminal and a targetvehicle associated with the mobile terminal.

It should be noted that the above description is merely provided for thepurposes of illustration, and not intended to limit the scope of thepresent disclosure. For persons having ordinary skills in the art,multiple variations and modifications may be made under the teachings ofthe present disclosure. However, those variations and modifications donot depart from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, theprocessing engine 112 may further include a storage module (not shown inFIG. 4). The storage module may be configured to store data generatedduring any process performed by any component of the processing engine112. As another example, each of the components of the processing engine112 may correspond to a storage module, respectively. Additionally oralternatively, the components of the processing engine 112 may share acommon storage module inside one of the components.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for monitoringtraffic sign violation according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the process 500 shown in FIG. 5 may beimplemented in the monitoring system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. Forexample, the process 500 may be stored in a storage medium (e.g., thestorage device 140, or the storage 220 of the computing device 200) as aform of instructions, and invoked and/or executed by a processor (e.g.,the processing engine 112 of the server 110, the processor 220 of thecomputing device 200, or one or more modules in the processing engine112 illustrated in FIG. 4). The operations of the illustrated process500 presented below are intended to be illustrative. In someembodiments, the process 500 may be accomplished with one or moreadditional operations not described, and/or without one or more of theoperations discussed. Additionally, the order in which the operations ofthe process 500 as illustrated in FIG. 5 and described below is notintended to be limiting.

In 502, the processing engine 112 may obtain a traffic rulecorresponding to a traffic sign. An exemplary traffic sign may include astop sign, a no parking sign, a parking time restriction sign, a speedlimit sign, a yield sign, a do not enter sign, a left turn only sign, ano left turn sign, a no right turn sign, a no U turn sign, or the like,or any combination thereof. The traffic rule corresponding to thetraffic sign may be associated with a specific requirement that avehicle should obey at or near the traffic sign. For instance, thetraffic rule corresponding to a stop sign may include requiring thevehicle to be fully stopped at the stop sign for at least a period oftime, such as 3 seconds. The traffic rule corresponding to a no parkingsign may include prohibiting any vehicle from parking near the noparking sign. The traffic rule corresponding to a parking timerestriction sign may include prohibiting any vehicle from parking nearthe parking time restriction sign for more than a preset time length oroutside a preset time period. The preset time length may be, forexample, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, two hours, etc. The presettime period may be, for example, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., from 7:00p.m. to 10:00 p.m., etc. In some embodiments, the preset time length andthe preset time period may vary in different regions. In someembodiments, the preset time length and the preset time period may beshown on the parking time restriction sign. The traffic rulecorresponding to a speed limit sign may include prohibiting any vehiclefrom driving faster than a maximum speed limit and/or slower than aminimum speed limit. For example, a maximum speed limit near a school ora residential area may be 25 miles per hour. As another example, aminimum speed limit for a highway may be 40 miles per hour. In someembodiment, the maximum speed limit and the minimum speed limit may beshown on the speed limit sign.

In some embodiments, a plurality of traffic rules may be stored in thestorage device 140. The processing engine 112 may obtain a traffic rulecorresponding to a traffic sign from the storage device 140 via thenetwork 120. For instance, the monitoring system 100 may be implementedon or near a traffic sign. A user (e.g., a traffic police officer) mayinput an instruction including the type of traffic sign to themonitoring system 100. The processing engine 112 may select the trafficrule corresponding to the traffic sign from the plurality of trafficrules. In some embodiments, the monitoring system 100 may automaticallyrecognize the type of traffic sign on which it is implemented.

In 504, the camera 150 may acquire video data associated with a scenearound the traffic sign. The video data may include a series of frames.The frame rate of the video data (also referred to as the number offrames captured per second) may be, for example, 20, 25, 40, etc. Eachof the series of frames may include one or more objects in the scenearound the traffic sign. For instance, the objects may include vehicles,pedestrians, pets, traffic lights, traffic signs, street lamps, utilitypoles, trees, buildings, or the like, or any combination thereof. Theprocessing engine 112 may perform an analysis on the motion of theobjects around the traffic sign based on the series of frames.

In some embodiments, the series of frames may be acquired by the camera150 as described in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, the series of framesmay be acquired by more than one camera 150. For example, a first camera150-1 (not shown in the figure) may be configured to acquire alow-resolution video (or low-resolution frame of images) for theanalysis on the motion of the objects. A second camera 150-2 (not shownin the figure) may be configured to acquire one or more high-resolutionimages for identifying information of the objects, for example, a platenumber of a vehicle.

In some embodiments, the camera 150 may be detachably mounted on thetraffic sign or an object near the traffic sign. For example, the objectmay include a traffic light, a street lamp, a utility pole, a tree, abuilding, or the like, or any combination thereof. When the traffic nearthe traffic sign does not need to be monitored any more, the camera 150may be demounted from the traffic sign or the object near the trafficsign. The camera 150 may then be mounted on another traffic sign or anobject near another traffic sign to acquire video data associated with ascene near the another traffic sign. In some embodiments, the camera 150may be mounted on a vehicle parked near a traffic sign. As used herein,“to be mounted on a vehicle” refers to be mounted on an external part ofthe vehicle (e.g., on the roof, on the front window, on the rearviewmirror) or to be mounted on an internal part of the vehicle (e.g., abovethe panel, on the front window from inside of the vehicle, or on apassenger seat). When another traffic sign is planned to be monitored,the vehicle may be driven and parked near another traffic sign and thecamera mounted on the vehicle may monitor traffic information around theanother traffic sign.

In 506, the processing engine 112 may identify a vehicle in the seriesof frames. The processing engine 112 may obtain the series of framescaptured by the camera 150 via the network 120. In some embodiments, theframes may include an uninterested region in the video scene. Forexample, the uninterested region may include a lane where the motion ofthe vehicle is not limited by the traffic sign. As another example, theuninterested region may include a static object, such as a tree, abuilding, a vehicle parked by the road, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the processing engine 112 may remove theuninterested region in the series of frames before identifying thevehicle in the series of frames.

In some embodiments, the processing engine 112 may identify the vehicleusing an object identification model. The identification model may beobtained from the storage device 140. The processing engine 112 mayexecute the object identification model to identify the vehicle in eachof the series of frames. The identified vehicle in each of the series offrames may be correlated and the motion of the identified vehicle may beanalyzed based on the correlated series of frames. Details regarding theidentification of the vehicle may be found in the descriptionsassociated with FIG. 6.

In 508, the processing engine 112 may determine whether the vehicleviolates the traffic rule. In some embodiments, the processing engine112 may determine whether the vehicle violates the traffic rule byanalyzing information related to the motion of the vehicle. Theinformation related to the motion of the vehicle may be obtained basedon an analysis of the series of frames. For example, the information mayinclude whether the vehicle stops near the traffic sign, a stop time ofthe vehicle, an estimated speed, a moving trace of the vehicle, or thelike, or any combination thereof. As used herein, a “stop time” refersto a time period when the velocity of the vehicle is zero. Merely by wayof example, the monitoring system 100 may be associated with a stop signand the processing engine 112 may determine whether a vehicle violatesthe traffic rule corresponding to the stop sign (i.e., the stop signassociated rule) based on the stop time of the vehicle. If the stop timeof the vehicle is greater than or equal to a threshold as required bythe stop sign associated rule, the processing engine 112 may determinethat the vehicle does not violate the stop sign associated rule. If thestop time of the vehicle is less than the threshold, the processingengine 112 may determine that the vehicle violates the traffic rule.

In response to a determination that the vehicle does not violate thetraffic rule, the process 500 may proceed to step 504 to acquire anotherseries of frames associated with the scene around the traffic sign. Inresponse to a determination that the vehicle violates the traffic rule,the process 500 may proceed to step 510.

In 510, the processing engine 112 may obtain information of the vehicle.Exemplary information of the vehicle may include a plate number of thevehicle, a location where the vehicle violates the traffic rule, atleast one of the series of frames that includes the vehicle violatingthe traffic rule, a time when the vehicle violates the traffic rule, orthe like, or any combination thereof. The plate number of the vehiclemay be used to identify a driver responsible for the violation of thetraffic rule. Other methods for identifying the driver responsible forthe violation may also be used, which are not limited by the presentdisclosure. For example, the driver may be identified based on a facialrecognition technique.

In some embodiments, the identification of the plate number of thevehicle may include locating a plate region in at least one of theseries of frames. The plate region may include features that may be usedto distinguish the plate region from other portions of the vehicle. Forexample, the color of the plate region may be different from the colorof the other portions of the vehicle. As another example, the plateregion may have a characteristic size and shape. In some embodiments,the plate region may be located by a plate region locating algorithm.For instance, the plate region locating algorithm may include analgorithm based on an edge feature (e.g., the straight boundaries orrectangular corners of the plate region), an algorithm based on a colorfeature, etc. In some embodiments, the plate region may also be locatedusing a machine-learning technique, such as an Adaboosting algorithm. Insome embodiments, the processing engine 112 may identify the platenumber in the plate region. For example, the plate number may beidentified based on a plate number identification model, such as aneural network model.

In some embodiments, the vehicle may be associated with an electroniclicense plate. As used herein, an “electronic license plate” refers to adevice that can emit a wireless signal associated with the plate numberof the vehicle and/or other information related to identification of thevehicle. In some embodiments, the electronic license plate may beimplemented on a built-in component of the vehicle, such as acommunication component of the vehicle. Alternatively, the electroniclicense plate may be an additional component mounted on the vehicle. Forexample, the electronic license plate may be a radio-frequency identitycard. It should be noted that other devices with the same or similarfunctions may also be treated as electronic license plates. In someembodiments, a communication module (e.g., the communication module 440of the processor 112) may send a request to an electronic license plateof a vehicle that violates a traffic rule corresponding to a trafficsign. The electronic license plate may receive the request and transmitinformation related to the identification of the vehicle (e.g., a platenumber) that violates the traffic rule to the communication module 440.

In 512, the processing engine 112 may transmit the information of thevehicle to the server 110. In some embodiments, the information of thevehicle may be integrated into a violation record as illustrated in FIG.11. The violation record may be transmitted to the server 110. Forexample, the violation record transmitted to the server 110 may includea record number, a violation type, a plate number of the vehicle thatviolates the traffic rule, the time when the vehicle violates thetraffic rule, the location where the vehicle violates the traffic rule,or the like, or any combination thereof. The violation type may beassociated with the type of the traffic sign that the vehicle violates.The time when the vehicle violates the traffic rule may include a dateand/or a time point during a day when the violation occurs.

In some embodiments, the violation record may be transmitted to a userterminal (e.g., the user terminal 130). A user (e.g., a police officer,a traffic controller) may review the violation record via a userinterface of the user terminal 130. In some embodiments, the user maysearch for a violation record by inputting a record number, a platenumber, a name of a driver, an identity number of a driver, or the like,or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the user may perform astatistic analysis on the violation records. For example, the user maydetermine a total number of the violation records in an area, and/orchanges in the total number of the violation records in the area duringa time period. As another example, the user may determine a type ofviolation that occurs most in the area and increase the monitoring ofthe type of violation in the area. In some embodiment, the user may adda violation record, for example, in the table shown in FIG. 11. The usermay also delete a violation record. In some embodiments, the user maydetermine, based on the violation record, a penalty decision for thedriver responsible for the violation according to the associated trafficrule.

In some embodiments, the process 500 may further include sending anotification to a user terminal (e.g., the user terminal 130) associatedwith the vehicle that violates the traffic rule. The user terminal 130may be used by the driver responsible for the violation of the trafficrule of the vehicle. For example, the notification may include aviolation type, a time when the vehicle violates the traffic rule, aplace when the vehicle violates the traffic rule, a penalty decision, adeadline before which the driver should deal with the penalty, or thelike, or any combination thereof. The notification may be sent to thedriver as a text message, an email, a message of an applicationassociated with a traffic violation notification service, or the like,or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the penalty may includea fine. The driver may pay the fine online or by other means. In someembodiments, the penalty may include a license suspension, whichprohibits the driver from driving any vehicle or a certain type ofvehicle for a period of time or permanently.

It should be noted that the above description is merely provided for thepurposes of illustration, and not intended to limit the scope of thepresent disclosure. For persons having ordinary skills in the art,multiple variations or modifications may be made under the teachings ofthe present disclosure. However, those variations and modifications donot depart from the scope of the present disclosure. For example,instead of video data, the camera 150 may capture a plurality of imagesat pre-determined time intervals in 504. The pre-determined timeinterval may be 0.1 s, 0.5 s, 1 s, 1.5 s, etc.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for identifyinga vehicle in a series of frames according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the process 600 may beimplemented in the monitoring system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. Forexample, the process 600 may be stored in a storage medium (e.g., thestorage device 140, or the storage 220 of the computing device 200) as aform of instructions, and invoked and/or executed by a processor (e.g.,the processing engine 112 of the server 110, the processor 220 of thecomputing device 200, or one or more modules in the processing engine112 illustrated in FIG. 4). The operations of the illustrated process600 presented below are intended to be illustrative. In someembodiments, the process 600 may be accomplished with one or moreadditional operations not described, and/or without one or more of theoperations discussed. Additionally, the order in which the operations ofthe process 600 as illustrated in FIG. 6 and described below is notintended to be limiting.

In 602, the processing engine 112 may obtain an object identificationmodel. In some embodiments, the object identification model may includea trained machine learning model. For example, the trained machinelearning model may include a you only look once (YOLO) model, aHaar-boosting model, a Faster R-CNN model, a Mask R-CNN model, or thelike, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the processingengine 112 may directly obtain the object identification model from thestorage device 140 via the network 120. In some embodiments, theprocessing engine 112 may obtain a machine learning model and train themachine learning model. For instance, the machine learning model may betrained using a group of sample images and a group of objectidentification results (e.g., positive or negative labels, labels oftype of objects) corresponding to the group of sample images. Thetrained machine learning model may be used as the object identificationmodel for identifying the vehicle in each of the series of frames.

In 604, the processing engine 112 may execute the object identificationmodel to identify one or more vehicles in each of the series of frames.In some embodiments, each of the series of frames may include aplurality of objects, for example, vehicles, pedestrians, pets, trafficlights, traffic signs, street lamps, utility poles, trees, buildings, orthe like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, theprocessing engine 112 may remove an uninterested region in the series offrames before executing the object identification model. Such process ofremoving the uninterested region may save the processing time for theidentification of the vehicle. The uninterested region may includeobjects that remain static for a certain period of time, such as trafficlights, traffic signs, street lamps, utility poles, trees, buildings, orthe like, or any combination thereof. The uninterested region may alsoinclude a lane on which the motion of the vehicle is not limited by thetraffic rule.

In some embodiments, the processing engine 112 may execute the objectidentification model to identify any vehicle among the plurality ofobjects in each of the series of frames. If no vehicle is identified inthe series of frames, the processing engine 112 may not conduct furtherprocessing on the series of frames. If one or more vehicles areidentified in the series of frames, the process 600 may proceed tooperation 606.

In 606, the processing engine 112 may correlate the identified vehiclesin each of the series of frames. In some embodiments, the identifiedvehicles may be correlated using an object tracking algorithm. Forinstance, the object tracking algorithm may include a Mean-Shifttracking algorithm, a Continuously Adaptive Mean-Shift (CamShift)algorithm, a Learning Multi-domain Convolutional Neural Network (MDNet)algorithm, a Hierarchical Convolutional Features (HCF) algorithm, or thelike, or any combination thereof. Merely by way of example, theprocessing engine 112 may identify a first object as a first vehicle ina first frame of the series of frames and a second object as a secondvehicle in a second frame of the series of frames. In some embodiments,the processing engine 112 may determine a similarity degree between thefirst vehicle and the second vehicle. If the similarity degree is lowerthan a preset threshold, then the first vehicle and the second vehiclemay be designated as different vehicles. If the similarity is higherthan or equal to the preset threshold, then the first vehicle and thesecond vehicle may be designated as the same vehicle (i.e., correlated).Similarly, other objects in the series of frames may be identified andcorrelated. The processing engine 112 may further determine whether theone or more identified vehicles violate the traffic rule correspondingto the traffic sign based on the series of frames (as described inoperation 508).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process 700 formonitoring stop sign violation according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the process 700 may beimplemented in the monitoring system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. Forexample, the process 700 may be stored in a storage medium (e.g., thestorage device 140, or the storage 220 of the computing device 200) as aform of instructions, and invoked and/or executed by a processor (e.g.,the processing engine 112 of the server 110, the processor 220 of thecomputing device 200, or one or more modules in the processing engine112 illustrated in FIG. 4). The operations of the illustrated process700 presented below are intended to be illustrative. In someembodiments, the process 700 may be accomplished with one or moreadditional operations not described, and/or without one or more of theoperations discussed. Additionally, the order in which the operations ofthe process 500 as illustrated in FIG. 7 and described below is notintended to be limiting.

In 702, the processing engine 112 may obtain a stop sign associated rulecorresponding to a stop sign. The stop sign associated rule may requirethe vehicle to be fully stopped around the stop sign for more than astop time threshold T₀. In some embodiments, the processing engine 112may obtain a real stop time T₁ (also referred to as stop time T₁ or stoptime in the present disclosure) of a vehicle and compare the real stoptime T₁ of the vehicle with the stop time threshold T₀ to determinewhether the vehicle violates the stop sign associated rule. In someembodiments, the processing engine 112 may obtain the stop signassociated rule from the storage device 140 via the network 120.

In 704, the camera 150 may acquire video data associated with a scenearound the stop sign. The video data may include a series of frames.Details regarding the acquisition of the series of frames may be foundin the descriptions associated with operation 504 in FIG. 5.

In 706, the processing engine 112 may identify a vehicle in the seriesof frames. In some embodiments, the processing engine 112 may identifythe vehicle using an object identification model. Details regarding theidentification of the vehicle in the series of frames may be found inthe descriptions associated with operation 506 in FIG. 5.

In 708, the processing engine 112 may compare, based on the series offrames, locations of the vehicle at different time points. For example,the processing engine 112 may compare the location of the vehicle in acurrent frame with the location of the vehicle in a previous frame.Exemplary location changes of the vehicle corresponding to differenttime points may be found in FIG. 10. As used herein, the location changemay be estimated based on the location change of a central point of thevehicle in the series of frames. Other methods of estimating thelocation change of the vehicle based on the series of frames may also beimplemented, which are not limited by the present disclosure. Forexample, when the vehicle gets closer to the camera 150, the vehicle mayappear larger in the series of images. The change in the size of thevehicle in the series of frames may be used to estimate the locationchange of the vehicle in the series of frames.

In 710, the processing engine 112 may determine a stop time T₁ of thevehicle based on the comparison between the locations of the vehicle atdifferent time points. In some embodiments, the processing engine 112may determine a first time point when the locations of the vehicle startto be unchanged (i.e., when the vehicle fully stops) and a second timepoint when the locations of the vehicle start to change (i.e., when thevehicle starts to move). A difference between the first time point andthe second time point may be designated as the stop time of the vehicle.Detailed method and calculations regarding obtaining the stop time T₁may be found in FIG. 10 and the descriptions thereof.

In 712, the processing engine 112 may obtain a stop time threshold T₀corresponding to the stop sign associated rule. The stop time thresholdT₀ may be defined by the stop sign associated rule. In some embodiments,the stop time threshold T₀ may vary in different countries,states/provinces, cities, districts, blocks, or the like. In someembodiments, the stop time threshold T₀ may depend on time and trafficflow. For instance, during traffic peak hours, the stop time thresholdT₀ may be set as 3 s for safety reasons. During off-peak hours, the stoptime threshold T₀ may be set as 2 s. In some embodiments, the processingengine 112 may obtain a stop time threshold T₀ from the storage device140 via the network 120.

In 714, the processing engine 112 may determine whether T₁ is less thanT₀. In response to a determination that T₁ is less than T₀, theprocessing engine 112 may proceed to 716 and determine that the vehicleviolates the stop sign associated rule. The processing engine 112 mayobtain information of the vehicle and transmit the information of thevehicle to the server 110 as described in connection with operation 510and 512 in FIG. 5. In response to a determination that T₁ is not lessthan T₀ (i.e., T₁ is greater than or equal to T₀), the processing engine112 may proceed to 718 and determine that the vehicle does not violatethe stop sign associated rule.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for monitoring stop sign violationaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustratedin FIG. 8, a stop sign 810 is configured at an intersection. In someembodiments, the stop sign 810 may include a one-way stop sign, atwo-way stop sign or a four-way stop sign, etc. It should be noted thatFIG. 8 is merely for illustration purposes. For example, there may be aplurality of stop signs (e.g., 2, 4, 8) at the intersection.

A camera 820 is mounted on the stop sign 810. The camera 820 may beconfigured to acquire video data associated with a scene around thetraffic sign 810. The video data may include a series of frames capturedat different time points. A stop sign associated rule may require thevehicle 830 to be fully stopped around the stop sign 810 for more than astop time threshold. The processing engine 112 may determine whether thevehicle 830 violates the stop sign associated rule based on the seriesof frames as described elsewhere in the present disclosure (for example,FIG. 7 and the descriptions thereof).

It should be noted that the examples illustrated in FIG. 8 and the abovedescriptions thereof are merely provided for the purposes ofillustration, and not intended to limit the scope of the presentdisclosure. For persons having ordinary skills in the art, multiplevariations or modifications may be made under the teachings of thepresent disclosure. However, those variations and modifications do notdepart from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the camera820 may also be mounted on a traffic light, a street lamp, a utilitypole, a tree, a building, a vehicle stopped near the traffic sign, orthe like, or any combination thereof.

FIGS. 9A-9C are schematic diagrams illustrating exemplary framesassociated with a scene around a traffic sign according to someembodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, theprocessing engine 112 may identify a vehicle in the series of frames andcorrelate the identified vehicle. For example, an object 910-1 in FIG.9A, an object 910-2 in FIG. 9B, and an object 910-3 in FIG. 9C may beidentified as a vehicle, respectively. The processing engine 112 maydetermine a similarity degree between the objects 910-1, 910-2 and910-3. The similarity degrees among the objects 910-1, 910-2 and 910-3may be greater than a preset threshold. The objects 910-1, 910-2 and910-3 may be correlated to the same vehicle. The processing engine 112may determine whether the identified vehicle violates the traffic rulecorresponding to the traffic sign based on the series of frames asdescribed elsewhere in the present disclosure (for example, FIG. 5 andthe descriptions thereof). In some embodiments, the object 920-1 in FIG.9A, the object 920-2 in FIG. 9B, and the object 920-3 in FIG. 9C may bedetermined not to be the same vehicle and may not be correlated. Theprocessing engine 112 may not conduct any further processing (e.g.,judgment on the violation of the traffic rule) on the objects 920-1,920-2 and 920-3.

It should be noted that the above description is merely provided for thepurposes of illustration, and not intended to limit the scope of thepresent disclosure. For persons having ordinary skills in the art,multiple variations or modifications may be made under the teachings ofthe present disclosure. However, those variations and modifications donot depart from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, theremay be a plurality of vehicles identified in the series of images. Theprocessing engine 112 may determine whether each of the plurality ofvehicles violates the traffic rule.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of location changes of a vehiclecorresponding to different time points according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the location changealong the driving direction of the vehicle at t₂, t₃, t₄ (i.e., locationchange from t₁ to t₂, location change from t₂ to t₃, location changefrom t₃ to t₄) is 2 cm, 1 cm, 0 cm, respectively, which may indicate adeceleration (or braking) process of the vehicle from t₁ to t₃. Thelocation of the vehicle at t₄ is the same as the location of the vehicleat t₃. In other words, the location of the vehicle starts to beunchanged (i.e., the vehicle stops) at t₃ (i.e., the first time point).The location change remains to be 0 cm from t₄ to t₇, which indicatesthat the vehicle is fully stopped from t₃ to t₆. At t₈ and t₉, thelocation change increases, which may indicate that the vehicle starts tomove at t₇ (i.e., the second time point) and may accelerate from t₇ tot₉. The time period from t₃ to t₇ may be determined as the stop time T₁.

It should be noted that the time points and location changes illustratedin FIG. 10 are merely provided for the purposes of illustration, and notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For personshaving ordinary skills in the art, multiple variations or modificationsmay be made under the teachings of the present disclosure. However,those variations and modifications do not depart from the scope of thepresent disclosure. For example, the processing engine 112 may estimatethe location change of the vehicle based on a change in the size of thevehicle in the series of images. As another example, the processingengine 112 may estimate the speed of the vehicle at different timepoints based on the series of images.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of exemplary traffic sign violationrecords according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Asshown in FIG. 11, a violation record may include a record number, aviolation type, a plate number, a time when the vehicle violates thetraffic rule, a location where the vehicle violates the traffic rule, orthe like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the violationrecords shown in FIG. 11 may be associated with video data acquired bydifferent cameras 150 located on or near different traffic signs. Insome embodiments, the violation records may be associated with videodata acquired by a same camera 150 at different locations and atdifferent time. The camera 150 may be mounted on an object, such as avehicle, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), etc. The location of thecamera 150 may be adjusted by moving the object on which the camera 150is mounted.

Merely by way of example, the violation record 18000001 may beassociated with a stop sign violation record. The plate number of thevehicle that violates the stop sign associated rule may be 1ABC234. Insome embodiments, the violation record 18000001 may further include anactual stop time related to the vehicle that violates the stop signassociated rule. The actual stop time may be determined by themonitoring system 100. The processing engine 112 or a user may comparethe actual stop time with the stop time threshold T₀. The penaltydecision associated with the violation record 18000001 may be based on adifference between the actual stop time and the stop time threshold T₀.As another example, the violation record 18000002 may be associated witha traffic rule corresponding to a no parking sign. The plate number ofthe vehicle that violates the traffic rule associated with the noparking sign may be 2DEF567. In some embodiments, the violation record18000002 may further include an actual parking time. The penaltydecision associated with the violation record 18000002 may be based onthe actual parking time. As yet another example, the violation record18000003 may be associated with a traffic rule corresponding to a speedlimit sign. The plate number of the vehicle that violates the trafficrule associated with the speed limit sign may be 3GHI890. In someembodiments, the violation record 18000003 may further include an actualspeed of the vehicle that violates the traffic rule associated with thespeed limit sign. The penalty decision associated with the violationrecord 18000002 may be based on the actual speed of the vehicle.

It should be noted that the table and the information shown in FIG. 11are only for illustration. The information of the vehicle may be sent tothe server 110 in other forms, such as a diagram, a database, or thelike, or any combination thereof. Other information associated with thevehicle that violates the traffic rule may also be sent to the server110, for example, the name and/or identity number of the driverresponsible for the violation, the evidence for the violation, a penaltydecision, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments,at least one of the series of frames may be transmitted to the server110 and/or stored in the storage device 140 as evidence of the violationassociated with the vehicle. In some embodiments, the processing engine112 may determine, based on the violation record, a penalty decision forthe driver responsible for the violation according to the associatedtraffic rule.

Having thus described the basic concepts, it may be rather apparent tothose skilled in the art after reading this detailed disclosure that theforegoing detailed disclosure is intended to be presented by way ofexample only and is not limiting. Various alterations, improvements, andmodifications may occur and are intended to those skilled in the art,though not expressly stated herein. These alterations, improvements, andmodifications are intended to be suggested by this disclosure, and arewithin the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of thisdisclosure.

Moreover, certain terminology has been used to describe embodiments ofthe present disclosure. For example, the terms “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” and/or “some embodiments” mean that a particular feature,structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.Therefore, it is emphasized and should be appreciated that two or morereferences to “an embodiment” or “one embodiment” or “an alternativeembodiment” in various portions of this specification are notnecessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, theparticular features, structures or characteristics may be combined assuitable in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Further, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects ofthe present disclosure may be illustrated and described herein in any ofa number of patentable classes or context including any new and usefulprocess, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new anduseful improvement thereof. Accordingly, aspects of the presentdisclosure may be implemented entirely hardware, entirely software(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or combiningsoftware and hardware implementation that may all generally be referredto herein as a “unit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects ofthe present disclosure may take the form of a computer program productembodied in one or more computer readable media having computer readableprogram code embodied thereon.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including electro-magnetic, optical, or thelike, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signalmedium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computerreadable storage medium and that may communicate, propagate, ortransport a program for use by or in connection with an instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device. Program code embodied on acomputer readable signal medium may be transmitted using any appropriatemedium, including wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, or thelike, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent disclosure may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C++, C#, VB. NET,Python or the like, conventional procedural programming languages, suchas the “C” programming language, Visual Basic, Fortran 2003, Perl, COBOL2002, PHP, ABAP, dynamic programming languages such as Python, Ruby, andGroovy, or other programming languages. The program code may executeentirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partlyon a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. Inthe latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user'scomputer through any type of network, including a local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to anexternal computer (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider) or in a cloud computing environment or offered as aservice such as a Software as a Service (SaaS).

Furthermore, the recited order of processing elements or sequences, orthe use of numbers, letters, or other designations therefore, is notintended to limit the claimed processes and methods to any order exceptas may be specified in the claims. Although the above disclosurediscusses through various examples what is currently considered to be avariety of useful embodiments of the disclosure, it is to be understoodthat such detail is solely for that purpose, and that the appendedclaims are not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on thecontrary, are intended to cover modifications and equivalentarrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the disclosedembodiments. For example, although the implementation of variouscomponents described above may be embodied in a hardware device, it mayalso be implemented as a software only solution, e.g., an installationon an existing server or mobile device.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the foregoing description ofembodiments of the present disclosure, various features are sometimesgrouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereoffor the purpose of streamlining the disclosure aiding in theunderstanding of one or more of the various embodiments. This method ofdisclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intentionthat the claimed subject matter requires more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, claimed subject matter may liein less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment.

1. A system for determining a traffic sign violation, comprising: atleast one camera configured to acquire video data associated with ascene around a traffic sign, wherein the video data includes a series offrames; at least one storage medium storing a set of instructions; andat least one processor configured to communicate with the at least onestorage medium, wherein when executing the set of instructions, the atleast one processor is directed to cause the system to: obtain a trafficrule corresponding to the traffic sign; identify a vehicle in the seriesof frames; determine whether the vehicle violates the traffic rule basedon the series of frames; and in response to the determination that thevehicle violates the traffic rule, obtain information of the vehicle;and transmit the information of the vehicle to a server.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein to identify the vehicle in the series of frames, theat least one processor is further directed to cause the system to:remove uninterested regions in the series of frames.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein to identify the vehicle in the series of frames, the atleast one processor is further directed to cause the system to: obtainan object identification model; execute the object identification modelto identify the vehicle in each of the series of frames; and correlatethe identified vehicle in each of the series of frames.
 4. The system ofclaim 3, wherein the object identification model is a you only look oncemodel, a Haar-boosting model, a Faster R-CNN model, or a Mask R-CNNmodel.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic sign is a stopsign, the traffic rule is a stop sign associated rule including a stoptime threshold, and to determine whether the vehicle violates thetraffic rule, the at least one processor is further directed to causethe system to: compare, based on the series of frames, locations of thevehicle at the different time points; determine a stop time of thevehicle based on the comparison between the locations of the vehicle atdifferent time points; determine whether the stop time of the vehicle isless than the stop time threshold; and in response to the determinationthat the stop time of the vehicle is less than the stop time threshold,determine that the vehicle violates the stop sign associated rule. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein the stop time of the vehicle is a timeperiod when a velocity of the vehicle is zero.
 7. The system of claim 6,wherein to determine the stop time of the vehicle based on thecomparison between the locations of the vehicle at different timepoints, the at least one processor is further directed to cause thesystem to: determine a first time point when the locations of thevehicle start to be unchanged; determine a second time point when thelocations of the vehicle start to change; and determine a differencebetween the first time point and the second time point as the stop timeof the vehicle.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein to obtain theinformation of the vehicle, the at least one processor is furtherdirected to cause the system to: identify a plate number of the vehicle.9. The system of claim 8, wherein to identify the plate number of thevehicle, the at least one processor is further directed to cause thesystem to: locate a plate region in at least one of the series offrames; and identify the plate number in the plate region.
 10. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein in response to the determination that thevehicle violates the traffic rule, the at least one processor is furtherdirected to cause the system to: transmit a traffic violationnotification to a user terminal that is associated with the vehicleviolating the traffic rule.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein theinformation of the vehicle comprises at least one of a plate number ofthe vehicle, a location where the vehicle violates the traffic rule, atleast one of the series of frames, or a time when the vehicle violatesthe traffic rule.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the camera ismounted on the traffic sign.
 13. The system of claim 1, wherein thecamera is mounted on a vehicle near the traffic sign.
 14. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the camera is included in a mobile terminal.
 15. Amethod implemented on a computing device having at least one storagedevice storing a set of instructions for determining a traffic signviolation, and at least one processor in communication with the at leastone storage device, the method comprising: obtaining a traffic rulecorresponding to a traffic sign; acquiring, by at least one camera,video data associated with a scene around the traffic sign, wherein thevideo data includes a series of frames; identifying a vehicle in theseries of frames; determining whether the vehicle violates the trafficrule based on the series of frames; and in response to the determinationthat the vehicle violates the traffic rule, obtaining information of thevehicle; and transmitting the information of the vehicle to a server.16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying the vehicle in theseries of frames further comprises: obtaining an object identificationmodel; executing the object identification model to identify the vehiclein each of the series of frames; and correlating the identified vehiclein each of the series of frames.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein thetraffic sign is a stop sign, the traffic rule is a stop sign associatedrule including a stop time threshold, and the determining whether thevehicle violates the traffic rule further comprises: comparing, based onthe series of frames, locations of the vehicle at the different timepoints; determining a stop time of the vehicle based on the comparisonbetween the locations of the vehicle at different time points;determining whether the stop time of the vehicle is less than the stoptime threshold; and in response to the determination that the stop timeof the vehicle is less than the stop time threshold, determining thatthe vehicle violates the stop sign associated rule.
 18. The method ofclaim 15, wherein the determining the stop time of the vehicle based onthe comparison between the locations of the vehicle at different timepoints comprises: determining a first time point when the locations ofthe vehicle start to be unchanged; determining a second time point whenthe locations of the vehicle start to change; and determining adifference between the first time point and the second time point as thestop time of the vehicle.
 19. (canceled)
 20. The method of claim 15,wherein in response to the determination that the vehicle violates thetraffic rule, the method further comprises transmitting a trafficviolation notification to a user terminal that is associated with thevehicle violating the traffic rule.
 21. A non-transitory computerreadable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executedby at least one processor, cause the at least one processor toeffectuate a method for determining a traffic sign violation, the methodcomprising: obtaining a traffic rule corresponding to the traffic sign;acquiring, by at least one camera, video data associated with a scenearound a traffic sign, wherein the video data includes a series offrames; identifying a vehicle in the series of frames; determiningwhether the vehicle violates the traffic rule based on the series offrames; and in response to the determination that the vehicle violatesthe traffic rule, obtaining information of the vehicle; and transmittingthe information of the vehicle to a server.